moguy1973

The 4 1/2 lber in my avatar was caught within the St. Louis county lines ?

What would be really awesome is if a reel manufacturer would come up with an ambidextrous bait casting reel where you could move the handle from one side to the other like most spinning reels are able to do. Doubt that's doable with the gear boxes and such but it would solve the problem of having needing to buy the right one. Plus it would be cheaper for the manufacturers only needing to make one reel instead of one of each side.

I am right handed but I reel with my left hand. My right hand is my strong hand so I prefer to work the rod with that hand. Plus I cast with my right and I can start reeling with my left as soon as it hits the water instead of having to switch hands to start reeling.

....the mortician pays you weekly visits to get new measurements.

This happened on the same river a couple years ago as the court case I posted above. Guy confronted a bunch of drunk floaters he said were on his property, he produced a gun and shot one of them in the head. He was convicted of 2nd degree murder.

I guess my point is, will a $15 buzzbait outfish a $5 Booyah you can get from Walmart? I wouldn't think they would be much different to a fish. I think I'd rather have a black, a white, and a chartreuse Booyah than one of those with a funky blade on it.

Yep, every state is different. There was a big court case back in the 50's (Elder v. Delcour) here in Missouri that declared the high water mark of a "navigable" river is public property as long as there is a public access to it somewhere along it's watershed. Now land owners may interpret that differently such as the one the OP ran into, but in Missouri as long as you are between the banks, you can walk, camp, float, fish, and do whatever you want to do. Just make sure you don't get shot by a P-O'ed land owner who thinks differently.

$15 for a buzz bait. Yikes. No thanks.

I had a Stanley short arm spinner bait I got from one of the secret boxes a few years ago. Was my favorite spinner bait for smallmouth bass. I say "had" and "was" because there's a bass that thought it would be nice to keep. I don't think they make them anymore.

Is it a buzzbait someone used some tin snips on and cut the blade and bent it up like that?

Definitely gives it a different look but it does kill the action the traditional Ned is supposed to have. That little tail wiggle.

Kind of Neko Rig style?

I've been using the Goody hair bands for as long as my daughter has needed them in her hair, so probably 8 year or so. So much cheaper than o-rings and work tons better since the hook is 90 degrees to the worm. The video above rigs it a little differently than I do. I just double the rubber band around the worm like you would an o-ring, and then put the hook under the X the band makes. I've caught 8-10 fish on one worm like that. Sometimes it tears the worm a little, but then I just slide the band a 1/4" down the worm and it'll work for a couple more fish.

Dang, that sucks. Sorry for your loss. This virus is true evil. As for your first daughter, that's not good to hear about her condition(s). Hopefully the booster can get her some much needed antibodies. My wife has ankylosing spondylitis also, as well as other disabling health issues such as asthma. Luckily she's had both initial Pfizer doses as well as the third booster shot. I'm glad she's been able to get those early as I don't think she would have faired well last year if she had gotten it prior to the vaccine coming out.

How do you match that frog with a hollow bellied one? You use a white one. The belly of that frog is most likely white and all the bass would see anyways. I've always been a fan of either a dark topwater or a white topwater and color really doesn't matter except to the fisherman.

I ordered some stuff from them several years ago when they became sponsors on a local fishing forum. Fast shipping, baits were good, caught some fish. Expressed my experience with them on the forum and he sent me a free bag of baits. Good local Missouri company.

She needs to go on that Food Network cake show.

Lure companies catch fishermen more than they catch fish.

All of my reels are 7:1-7.5-1 now. I don't deep crank much and if I do, it's not an all day affair so I just grunt it out. The main reason to use a faster reel for topwaters is to be able to take up the slack line faster.

I bought all the colors a few years back. Used them to dip my baits I wanted to dip, even used the blue to make some sexy shad colored flukes like shown above. Then I closed up all the jars and put them back in the TW box only to come back in a few weeks to a smelly box and empty jars. I guess I got jars with bad seals because all the JJ's inside evaporated leaving nothing inside. Jars were stored upright the whole time and the box was in my garage. Maybe they got too hot. Dunno.

Not enough coffee yet.

I have this question too. Why the variation of the standard knot? What is the variation and is it believed to help? Personally, I don't use anything except for the Palomar anymore, unless I'm fly fishing with really small flies where I can't put two lines through the hook eye, and then I use a uni knot.

It's tough. There's a larger lake near here that gets huge mats of coontail that comes 100' or more out from the bank and it all looks the same. You have to look at the bank to see where points come out or any sort of areas where the weeds are little less thick. When you do find the fish usually there are a couple hanging out in the same area since with all the weeds there's limited areas they can live and hang out. Good luck!

If you can punch a 1oz weight or something through it, usually it's clear underneath. Tell the owners to get some grass carp to thin the weeds out some.